GIRLS OF 18 AND 19

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 4

GIRLS OF 18 AND 19

REGISTRATION ORDER

ESSENTIAL WORK

An order has been issued requiring girls of 18 and IU years to register for work ol national importance uefort Friday, February 2b. Girls subsequently attaining the age of 18 or ceasing to be exempted under any of the exemptions provided in the order must register within seven days. Exemptions trom registration under ihe order are:—Full-time students at schools, training colleges, and university colleges; persons already registered for work of national importance, persons serving full-time in the armed forces or employed by the Army, Nafy, or Air Force; persons employed full-time in registered hospitals; persons in receipt of social security invalids' benefits; inmates of hospitals or the Institute for the Blind; persons within the scope of the Mental De-, fectives Act; and person^ undergoing sentences of imprisonment or detained in Borstal institutions. There is an obligation on all employers to see that registration of employees affected by the order is made. Registration forms are available at post offices and when completed should be lodged with the nearest man-powe^ officer GIRLS URGENTLY NEEDED. The Minister of Industrial Manpower (Mr. McLagan) said last night that still more girls were urgently needed for essential work to enable the Dominion to fulfil the increasingly important part expected of it in the South Pacific. He added that he realised that the direction of minors would be regarded with some concern by many parents. The greatest care would be taken to ensure that any direction given would not be detrimental to the long-range welfare of the young person concerned. His Department would regard itself as having a special responsibility in that direction. "Girls who are in essential or other important positions," said Mr. McLagan, "are not likely to be directed elsewhere except where very special circumstances arise, and no girls under 21 years will be directed to work outside the locality in which they reside. Furthermore, girls aged 18 to 19 will not be directed to mental hospitals or licensed hotels unless they volunteer for such work and are obviously suitable for the work and their parents agree that they should be permitted to undertake it.

"I should also like to emphasise," continued the Minister, "that full-time students at schools, training colleges, and university colleges are ' exempt from registration. In the case of parttime students, who must register, nothing will be done to jeopardise their studies."